Daily News exam finds math scores up when difficulty rating went down

When test scores rise, politicians crow that schools are getting better, but a Daily News analysis of recent standardized math exams and a News experiment suggest another reason:

The questions might be getting easier.

"There's less than a 5% chance that [the results] are due to chance," said James Corter, a professor of education and statistics at Columbia University's Teachers College. "The fact that it's a small sample is not at all important. I think you've got really good evidence here ... that the 2005 test was easier."

This article appeared in the September 4, 2007 edition of the NY Daily News.